Two arrested after Germany shuts down shopping mall over fears of terrorist attack

Date of publication: 11 03 2017, 19:55

The Limbecker Platz shopping center in the western German city of Essen has remained shut on Saturday after a warning of a possible terror attack. Two people have been arrested in connection with the incident.

About a hundred armed police and vans surrounded and sealed off the Limbecker Platz shopping mall in Essen early on Saturday after receiving what they said was a credible threat of a terror attack.

Security services cited by the German tabloid newspaper “Bild” described the threat as a potential multiple suicide bombing.

As well as the mall, nearby parking garages and an underground rail station were all placed in lockdown.

Two men in the nearby town of Oberhausen were arrested in connection with the threat. One was questioned after a police search of an apartment in the town. Another was taken in for questioning from a nearby internet cafe.